Image Forming System Capable of Causing Document Box Information of the Printer Driver to Automatically Adjust to a Change in the Document Box Information That Is Stored in an Image Forming Apparatus

1. An image forming system, comprising: a management device; an image forming apparatus including an auxiliary storage device; a plurality of information processing devices; and the management device, the image forming apparatus, and the plurality of information processing devices being coupled to one another via a network; wherein the management device is configured to (i) acquire a box information file that includes a path to a document box created in the auxiliary storage device from the image forming apparatus via the network, (ii) compare a timestamp received from each of the plurality of information processing devices with a timestamp of the box information file retained by the management device, (iii) transmit the box information file, which is assigned a name that includes an image forming apparatus name and an identification code indicating the box information, to each of the plurality of information processing devices in its original format or a predetermined format after a conversion thereof, if the timestamp received from each of the plurality of information processing devices is older, and (iv) transmit information indicating that a file update is not necessary to the plurality of information processing devices, if the timestamp received from each of the plurality of information processing devices is newer; and the plurality of information processing devices are each configured to (i) transmit the timestamp of a current box information file to the management device, (ii) update the current box information file with the box information file that has been received from the management device before the document box is displayed on a display device of each of the plurality of information processing devices by the printer driver compatible with the image forming apparatus, and (iii) display the document box based on the updated box information file.

2. The image forming system according to claim 1 , wherein: the management device is configured to acquire a box information list file with respect to the document box created on the auxiliary storage device from the image forming apparatus via the network; and each of the plurality of information processing devices is configured to acquire the box information list file from the management device.

3. The image forming system according to claim 1 , wherein: the management device is configured to acquire a portion of the box information file with respect to the document box created on the auxiliary storage device from the image forming apparatus via the network; and each of the plurality of information processing devices is configured to acquire the portion of the box information file from the management device.

4. The image forming system according to claim 1 , wherein the management device is configured to transmit the box information file to the plurality of information processing devices after conversion of the file into a format selected from the group consisting of an XML format and a CSV format.

5. The image forming system according to claim 1 , wherein the management device is configured to acquire the box information file with respect to an edited portion from the image forming apparatus via the network.

6. The image forming system according to claim 5 , wherein the management device is configured to reflect the box information file with respect to only the edited part on the box information file regarding the image forming apparatus which is stored in the management device.

7. The image forming system according to claim 1 , wherein the auxiliary storage device comprises a hard disk within the image forming apparatus and a removable memory attached to the image forming apparatus.

8. The image forming system according to claim 1 , wherein the image forming apparatus is configured to transmit, in response to editing of the document box within the auxiliary storage device after the box information file is transmitted to the management device, the box information file including contents of the editing to the management device.

9. The image forming system according to claim 8 , wherein the image forming apparatus is configured to transmit the box information file including the contents of the editing to the management device, in response to action selected from the group consisting of an addition, deletion, and renaming of the document box within the auxiliary storage device.

10. The image forming system according to claim 1 , wherein the image forming apparatus periodically is configured to transmit the box information file to the management device.